Pretend Love
by emmer23
Summary: SPOILER ALERT for either 10x8 or 10x9 (not sure what episode the spoiler is for). Carlos comes to visit, and Callie, having not told her father about Arizona's infidelity, asks Arizona to pretend like nothing happened.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **Pretend Love

**Author: **emmer23

**Rating:** PG-13 for language

**Summary:** SPOILER ALERT for either 10x8 or 10x9 (not sure what episode the spoiler is for). Carlos comes to visit, and Callie, having not told her father about Arizona's infidelity, asks Arizona to pretend like nothing happened.

**Disclaimer:** I own none of these characters.

**A/N:** This will just be a two-shot fic. I can't really predict where they will be in their relationship at this point, so I'm assuming with some time, Callie is a little less hostile and Arizona has been a little more apologetic. So, that's the context I'm working with. I hope you guys enjoy!

**Pretend Love**

It wasn't being in the same room with her adulterous wife that upset Callie the most. It was being in the room with the woman she still loved who was trying desperately to hold herself together, to pretend there weren't huge gaping cracks in her armor…who also happened to be her adulterous wife. It was the longing looks that Callie had ignored so effectively during the initial weeks after her wife's betrayal. It was the fact that her traitorous heart would defy her brain by skipping a beat when Arizona walked through the room. The worst part of Arizona's adultery was that Callie still loved her wife, and try as she might, she didn't know how to stop.

So she didn't file for divorce papers, she didn't ask Arizona to take off her ring, and she didn't stop loving her wife.

And that's why Callie Torres was about to beg Arizona to pretend everything was just _peachy_ when her father would be in town the following week.

**o0o0o0o**

Arizona raced down the halls as fast as she could, reaching her destination: the on-call room in the Ortho wing. She had been paged 311, which was a secret code she had with her wife. When they began dating, Callie would routinely page her to that on-call room for a quickie between surgeries.

Now, they didn't talk. Well, they talked, but they didn't _talk_.

Communicating was reserved solely for discussing Sofia or a rare joint surgery. Since they did not currently have any patients together, Arizona feared the worst: Sofia was hurt.

When she flung open the door, she was surprised by the sight in front of her. Callie stood next to the bunk beds, a sheepish half-smile on her face. Arizona hadn't seen many smiles directed towards her from her wife since the storm; the ones she had seen had been sad smiles, pitying smiles.

"What's going on? Is it Sofia?" Arizona asked, panicked.

"Uh…no, no, she's fine," Callie responded quickly. She couldn't fault Arizona for her mothering instincts.

"Oh, thank god," Arizona breathed. When she saw Callie's mouth quirk, she narrowed her eyes. "Wait, so why did you page me?"

Callie sighed heavily, her eyes landing on Arizona's chest, where her heart necklace still lay. "My dad is visiting next week. He has business in Portland, so he's stopping by Seattle."

"Ooookay…and?"

"Aaaand…" Callie fidgeted with the watch on her wrist, really hoping for some miracle, that her dad would call her in the next five minutes and cancel his trip.

"Oh my god, you haven't told him?" Arizona's voice was a mixture of shock and reproach.

Callie shrank slightly under Arizona's withering stare, before remembering why they were here in the first place, and straightened up.

Arizona shook her head. "You haven't told him that you're living across the street, that we haven't spoken in months, that your wife is an adulterous whore?"

"Arizona…" Callie had said those exact words. But hearing Arizona call herself a whore with such resignation made her heart clench.

"Did you not learn your lesson with George?"

Blowing air through her pursed lips, Callie shook her head. "Apparently not?"

Arizona groaned. This was going to be utterly awkward for both of them. "Well, I'm at least glad I don't have to endure his wrath." Callie snorted in agreement. "What do you want me to do?"

"I was sort of hoping you'd pretend we were still together."

Swallowing back the lump in her throat, Arizona shifted uncomfortably on her sneakers. Part of her wanted to stand her ground, wanted to show Callie how unreasonable this was. But the bigger part of her wanted a chance to be in the same room as Callie, no matter what the circumstances were. She desperately hoped that this would give her a chance to show Callie that she still loved her, that they could still be a family.

"This doesn't actually mean anything," Callie was quick to add. "I just really need you to do this for me."

_I'd do anything for you_, is what Arizona wanted to say, but her brain was quick to remind her that it probably wouldn't be an appropriate response.

Her brain instead settled for an eloquent: "um, yeah, sure."

**o0o0o0o**

When Callie crosses the hallway from Mark's old apartment, where she'd been staying, she knocks on the door to her former apartment hesitantly. The girl on her hip wriggles, excited to see her other mother.

Arizona opens the door with a breezy smile and immediately pulls the toddler from Callie's arms, ignorant of Callie's reaction when Arizona's hands brush against her forearms. "I've missed you, big girl!" Arizona coos. "Yes, I have!"

Single-minded, Arizona took her daughter over to the living room, so that she could sit with her comfortably. Callie stood awkwardly in the doorway, at which she shook her head. This was ridiculous. It was her damn apartment, too.

"So, I think we should set some ground rules," Callie stated suddenly, reminding Arizona she wasn't alone with Sofia.

"Umm…okay?"

"I'm not staying the night. My dad's at a hotel, so I'll be going back across the hall as soon as he leaves."

"I assumed as much."

"There will be touching, but no kissing."

"Oh, there will, will there?" Arizona's mouth quirked upwards into a smirk.

"This isn't funny, Arizona."

"Oh, I'm certainly not laughing."

"Look, Arizona, I don't want to be doing this either, but I think you'd agree that it's best for both of us."

Arizona nodded; she couldn't disagree with that. "Well, I guess we should get started on dinner, then."

**o0o0o0o**

After taking a sip of her wine, Arizona resumed her task, slicing a baguette to make a loaf of garlic bread. She hazarded a glance at her wife, who was busy stirring the pot of pasta sauce, taking a sip from the ladle, and adding more oregano.

"This is nice," Arizona chanced. When Callie didn't respond, she elaborated, "working together, out of the ER."

Callie smiled weakly at her. She figured she could be somewhat nice, considering her own cowardice was the reason they were awkwardly cooking together. "Yeah, it is."

Arizona hummed her satisfaction, beyond thrilled to be getting any sort of pleasant reaction from Callie. She took another swig of wine, before placing cloves in between the cuts in the baguette. Being drunk in front of Carlos Torres was not something she wanted to do, but she was going to need _some_ liquid courage to get through this night.

"My dad will be here soon. Can you go lay the table?"

Arizona nodded, and put the loaf in the oven. She grabbed a few plates and silverware, before rounding their bar to walk to the living room. As Arizona left, Callie rested her hands on the edge of the counter, sighing deeply. She _hated _this. She hated the awkwardness, the horrible small talk, the silence. But most of all she hated that all she wanted to do was push Arizona against this very counter and kiss her until she couldn't breathe. Because being in such close proximity to her estranged wife without being able to kiss her or touch her or even laugh with her was actual torture. Arizona wasn't even wearing anything particularly sexy; in fact, she had clearly gone for a demure look to impress Carlos. Callie was still 100% attracted to her wife. The fact that someone else's hands had been the last ones on her didn't change that fact.

Out of the corner of her eye, Arizona watched as Callie steadied herself against the counter and breathed deeply. She wasn't happy that her wife was struggling, but she was glad to know she wasn't the only one. She also couldn't help but be pleased that Callie was still affected by her mere presence.

Both women were pulled out of their thoughts by a knock at the door. Callie rushed to the door, thrilled to have someone else to diffuse the tension.

"Hey, Dad!" she gushed, as she yanked the door wide open. Carlos grinned and pulled his daughter into an enveloping hug.

"It's so good to see you, mi'ja." Seeing Arizona standing silently behind Callie, Carlos opened his left arm out. "And it's good to see _you_, mi otra hija."

His _other_ daughter. Callie sent Arizona a panicked look. The blonde merely shrugged and accepted her father-in-law's hug. Carlos squeezed both arms, bringing both women together. With a sharp intake of breath, Callie placed a hesitant arm around Arizona's waist.

"Okay, enough of that. We all know who I really want to see."

Arizona laughed good-naturedly, while Callie attempted to regulate her breathing. "Unfortunately, she's down for her nap at the moment, but you will be the first in line for Sofia hugs when she wakes up."

As if on cue, a "Mama?" sounded over the baby monitor. Carlos's eyes lit up. "I'll get her!" he offered enthusiastically. He rushed into Sofia's room, leaving the two women on their own.

"We only have two more days, Calliope. We can handle it." Despite her use of Callie's full name, Arizona's tone was somewhat reproachful. Could her wife seriously not manage to be in the same room with her for more than five minutes? Was she that repulsive to her?

Callie's eyes flashed darkly as she recalled the last time Arizona had made a similar remark.

"_We just need to focus on the bigger picture…which is, you and I are getting married," Arizona had said two years ago. And Callie had looked at her to find the most endearing, sweet, enticing smile staring back at her._

"_We're getting married," Callie had responded, her own happiness bubbling up in her and spilling out into an uncharacteristic giggle._

Shaking her head, Callie wondered if Arizona even remembered that time. A time when all they had to worry about was finding a new officiant, a new location for their wedding, and of course, Callie's bigoted mother. Callie snorted. How horrible had her life become that she would love to just go back in time to the moment when her own mother was disowning her? That such a time was preferable to this?

Before either has a moment to reminisce about that weekend, Carlos comes back into the room, holding his sleep and dazed granddaughter on his hip.

**o0o0o0o**

Throughout dinner, the three kept the conversation light, mostly regaling Carlos with all of Sofia's adventures he had missed. Like the time she had jumped feet first into a mud puddle at the park, ruining the cute little suede shoes Callie had bought for her from Baby Gap. Or the time she'd held little Freddy's hand at daycare because he was scared of the spider the older kids had caught. They left out the time she asked Auntie Cristina why Mommy was living across the hall now.

The two women played the perfect in-love couple. Callie rested her hand over Arizona's wrist, brushing her fingertip along her skin in a familiar pattern. And Arizona leaned closer to Callie, looking at her adoringly as she told a story of an amazing surgery she had.

Neither was completely sure if the other was acting. Arizona was certainly more than a little bit hopeful that this was not acting on Callie's part, that her wife still harbored at least a few feelings for her.

When dinner came to an end, Carlos bid them farewell and promised to come back in the morning. He suggested a family breakfast, to which Callie shook her head and said she had an early surgery. When Arizona absentmindedly remarked that she had the day off, Carlos was more than pleased.

"How about a trip to the zoo with my favorite in-law and my favorite granddaughter?"

Who was Arizona to say no to such an offer?

"That sounds…fun!" she said, plastering on her most convincing of fake smiles.

Carlos hugged all of them goodbye, and walked down the hallway to the elevator.

Callie shut the door behind him with a sigh. "You don't have to go to the zoo with him tomorrow. I can make up an excuse for you."

"Honestly, Callie, it's fine. He should see Sofia as much as he can while he's here, and it's my day with her, so I'd like to spend time with her, too."

"Okay, well, thanks for…pretending or whatever tonight. He didn't seem to notice anything." Callie grabbed Sofia's hand to lead her across the hallway.

"Nope, we must be pretty great actresses," Arizona replied. She just couldn't help herself.

"Uh, yeah, whatever. I'll see you tomorrow."

Arizona bent down to blow a raspberry on Sofia's cheek, making the little girl giggle. "Goodnight, sweet pea. Be good for Mommy."

With that, Callie and Sofia were out of the apartment, and Arizona was left with the longing, lonely, aching feeling that was all too familiar.

**o0o0o0o**

As Carlos ducked his head to take his seat in the back seat of the taxi Callie had called for him, he patted his pockets, realizing they felt lighter than usual.

"Seems I forgot my wallet upstairs. Do you mind waiting for a minute?"

The cab driver nodded and Carlos headed back into the building and up the elevator. The elevator announced its arrival on the fifth floor with a cheerful bing, and Carlos exited, heading down the hallway. When he was just a mere five feet away from his daughter's apartment, both that door and the one across the hallway opened.

"Hey, Callie, you forgot Sofia's – "

"I think I forgot Sof's beary – "

The two women spoke at once, Arizona's arm outstretched, holding Sofia's worn, but loved, teddy bear.

"What the hell is going on?" Carlos's voice boomed down the hallway.

Panicked, both women looked to the other one for guidance, but came up with nothing. This is not exactly how Callie had expected this talk to go.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** So this became non-cannon in a hurry. Obviously, Arizona was not kicked out in this fic. I'm also not dealing with the whole Leah debacle, so pretend that didn't happen. A big thank you goes to librarynerd, who gave me brilliant suggestions and advice for this chapter!

**Chapter 2**

"Dad," Callie spoke softly, unsure how to tell her father all that had happened, especially with Arizona standing right there.

"You two are separated?" Carlos asked.

Seeing Callie's struggle, Arizona shifted on her feet and decided to speak up. "Why don't we all go inside to talk?" she suggested, gesturing behind her.

"Good idea," Callie agreed. "I'll just go get the baby monitor."

Once Callie had left, Arizona wasn't sure what she should do with herself, so she awkwardly stood in the doorway. Instead of responding, Carlos started marching towards the woman. Arizona froze instinctively, bracing for impact. She had watched Carlos throw a grown man against a wall, she had no doubt he could do that to her, too.

Carlos breezed past her and into the apartment behind her. She shook her head, realizing how silly she'd been. Not only did Carlos not know what had happened, but she was a woman, a handicapped woman no less; he was obviously not going to lay a finger on her.

"You going in?" Arizona was pulled out of her thoughts by Callie's soft question.

"Oh, uh, yeah…just thinking," Arizona responded. "Hey, look, I'll –" she continued, wanting to come up with a game plan. Callie was definitely not in the mood, and she pushed past her wife, not caring to hear what she had to say.

Arizona rolled her eyes. Callie had recently developed a knack for reminding her of what their problems were in the first place.

Barely waiting for Arizona to take a seat, Callie launched right in. At this point she needed to just rip off the band-aid. "Arizona and I are…kind of…separated."

"I gathered that, mi'ja," Carlos began softly, having calmed down considerably since his initial reaction. "But what happened? You two are so good together, and you have your beautiful daughter…"

Unable to listen to her father-in-law wax poetic about their _beautiful_ life together, Arizona shifted uncomfortably in her seat and interrupted him. "It's my fault, Mr. Torres."

"I've told you to call me Carlos," he replied out of habit. "Wait, how is it your fault?"

Suddenly regretting her decision ever to speak, Arizona glanced at Callie. Her wife looked on expectantly. There was a tiny part of Callie, a part she was not proud of, that was delighted to see her wife squirm a bit.

"I slept with someone else," Arizona admitted softly, her voice cloaked in overwhelming emotions, tears threatening to fall from her eyes. She blinked them back; her authority issues would not get the best of her.

"What was that, dear?"

_God damn it, stop being nice._ "I…I slept with someone else. A few months ago."

A painful silence befell the room as both women waited for Carlos to process Arizona's admission.

Carlos sighed and rubbed the seam of his pants, before standing. "Well, I think I'll be going."

"What?" both women asked at the same time.

"I'm not really in the mood to talk to you two about this right now. You," he said, pointing at Arizona, "betrayed my little girl. And you," he added, turning to his daughter, "kept this from me for _months_, when you know I'd do anything to help you through hard days."

Callie followed him to the door, at a complete loss for words. Before Carlos left for the night, he turned towards the shell-shocked blonde in the morning. "I'll be over at 9 tomorrow morning so that we can take Sofia to the zoo."

"Excuse me, sir?" That was actually the last thing she expected him to say to her.

"I assume you still want to see your daughter on your day off and it's only right that I get to see my one and only grandchild, don't you think?"

"I…I do, sir." Arizona was suddenly 12 years old talking to _the_ Colonel, and she wanted nothing more than to run to her room and cry.

"Besides, I am a man of my word," he added pointedly. "For your sake, I hope a night's sleep helps me process this."

Though his words were not meant to be particularly ominous, all Arizona could do was gulp.

After daughter and father said their terse goodbyes, Callie turned to her wife, who was still standing, staring blankly ahead of her.

"You don't have to do this. I can talk to him." Sure, she had wanted to see Arizona squirm earlier, but this was too much. She pitied her wife and sympathized for her, a welcome feeling after all of the hurt and anger she had felt over the past few months.

"No," Arizona said suddenly, managing to look Callie in the eyes. "No," she repeated, resolutely. "I'm going."

**o0o0o0o**

Callie had just shut the door to Apartment 502 when she saw her father walking down the hall.

"Hey, Dad," she started cautiously, not knowing what kind of mood he was in after the revelation from the night before. "I was just dropping Sofia off with Arizona before heading to work."

"Good morning, mi'ja," Carlos said with a small smile.

Callie returned his smile, but said nothing.

"We need to talk."

"I agree," Callie said with a brusque nod.

"Tonight. Just you and me. Dinner at La Verdad at 7?" Callie rolled her eyes at her dad choosing a restaurant named "The Truth" even if it was one of her favorites.

"That sounds great, Dad. I gotta run to work now, though."

"Of course, of course. Have a good day."

"Yeah, you too. And, Dad? Please don't be _too_ mean to her."

Carlos simply smiled in response, not reassuring Callie in the least bit. As Callie stepped into the elevator, she heard Arizona mutter "g-good morning, sir". As the elevator doors closed in front of her, she sighed and brought her hand up to rub her temples. This was going to be an interesting day.

**o0o0o0o**

"Oooh, Sof, do you see the gorilla?" Arizona asked cheerfully. "What does the gorilla say?"

Both Arizona and Carlos laughed as the little girl did her best gorilla imitation. When she was done, she grabbed her mother's hand and pointed to where several children were standing by the gorillas' enclosure.

"You can go ahead, Sof. We'll be right here."

As the toddler teetered over to get a better view, Carlos and Arizona walked to where they were standing just a few feet behind the children with the other parents.

"You know, you're a really good mother," Carlos said sincerely.

"Thanks," Arizona responded softly.

"Which is one of the main reasons I don't understand how you could do this. You betrayed your wife _and_ your child."

"I know," Arizona whispered.

"I thought you were happy. I thought my daughter had finally found the person she was going to be with the rest of her life."

"I thought that, too," Arizona responded immediately. "Well, actually it's not that I thought that, but it's what I tried so hard to have, pretended to have," she admitted.

"Arizona…"

Before Carlos could speak, Arizona interrupted him quickly, her arms raised defensively. "I know, I know! Being unhappy isn't an excuse."

"That's not what I was going to say. I was going to ask if Callie knew you were unhappy."

Arizona shook her head before turning her attention to her daughter, who had finished with the gorillas and was walking towards the adults. She scooped the little girl up into her arms and was delighted when Sofia wrapped her arms around her neck.

"You ready for something else, big girl?"

Sofia thought carefully. She'd seen her favorites already: gorillas, penguins, and lions.

"Abuelo, what's your fav'ite?"

"I personally love the elephants," he indulged her with a big smile.

"To the lelephants, Momma!"

Arizona put her down in her "big girl" stroller, which they occasionally still used for days like today when Sofia couldn't quite handle the amount of walking. They three walked towards the elephant enclosure silently, except for Sofia's gleeful observations from her seat.

After watching the elephants take their dust baths for a few minutes, they meandered through the zoo, Sofia becoming more exhausted with each new exhibit. After the gorilla exhibit, Carlos and Arizona had talked only to Sofia about the animals.

Carlos still couldn't wrap his mind around it, however, so as they drove back to their apartment building, Sofia sleeping soundly in her car seat, he asked Arizona softly, "Do you still love her?"

"God, yes," Arizona admitted easily. "I'll never stop. But that's not always enough."

"Arizona, it may take me a long time to forgive you and to understand, but the person whose forgiveness you need is Callie's. You have to talk to her."

"I've tried. Understandably, she doesn't want to hear it."

Before Carlos could speak, Arizona's phone beeped, signifying a text message from the Ped's desk. "Crap, I have to go in. One of my patients is going in for emergency surgery." She looked at Carlos with a pleading look.

"Are you asking if I wouldn't mind spending some alone time with my granddaughter? Because I think you know the answer."

Arizona laughed as they pulled into the parking garage. "Thanks so much, sir – Carlos."

"Sir Carlos, I like it!" her father-in-law joked. "Also, Callie texted me a while ago saying she was going to be stuck in surgery all day and wouldn't be home in time for dinner, so I was wondering if you'd like to get dinner with me tonight?"

"Oh, um, sure!" Arizona answered. She doubted Carlos would truly forgive her anytime soon, but things had been relatively not awkward today at the zoo and that was enough for her.

"7 o'clock at La Verdad?"

"It's a date."

**o0o0o0o**

The first thing Callie noticed when she entered La Verdad was familiar blonde hair peeking out over the top of a booth. _Get a grip, Callie, not every blonde is _that _blonde._ She smiled to the maître d' and told her that she was with the Torres party of two.

"Oh, your party is already seated. Follow me."

Callie obliviously followed the hostess toward the blonde hair she had noticed earlier. When the two women rounded the booth, Callie rolled her eyes.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Arizona was the one to speak first.

Without sitting, contemplating a get-away, Callie placed a hand on her hip and gestured wildly with the other. "Me?! My dad invited me here this morning."

"Well he told me that you had surgery and that he and I would be getting dinner instead."

"So you didn't orchestrate this whole thing to get me to talk to you?"

"I swear I didn't," Arizona answered honestly, catching Callie's eye in an attempt to maintain her ground.

Sighing, Callie took a seat opposite her wife. Just as she did so, their waitress appeared, a bottle of merlot in hand. "This is sent to you by a Mr. Carlos Torres. He says that neither of you may return home until you have talked to each other."

"Of course he does," Callie muttered.

Looking slightly worried, the waitress asked, "do you not want it?"

"No, we'll take it. Might as well make the best of this situation, right?" Callie looked at Arizona with a smirk. Arizona could only smile back. This may not have been what she planned, but she'd take it.

"Yep, right!"

"Great," the waitress answered, while deftly uncorking the bottle. After she'd taken their orders, the two women settled into a silence, neither sure how to begin such a weighty conversation.

Despite everything, they still managed to be perfectly in sync.

"So, Sofia loved the gorillas." "Did Sof get to see the gorillas today?" They said at the same time.

Laughing softly, Arizona responded, "Yeah, she was totally taken by them. Though I think she might be more obsessed with elephants now thanks to her abuelo."

Callie smiled; she loved hearing Arizona using the Spanish terms for her family. "Speaking of her abuelo, how was that?"

"Um, actually, not as bad as I thought it would be. He didn't feed me to the lions, which was a genuine concern of mine."

"Did you guys talk about…it, at all?" Callie wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to hear about their talk, but she was too curious not to ask.

"Yeah, um, I'm thinking that's why we're here. I didn't really explain much to him, but he seemed to be concerned that we hadn't really talked."

"Oh." Callie's fork stopped midway between her plate and her mouth. "I'm just not sure that I'm ready for that…"

Seeming to disregard Callie's hesitance, Arizona took a deep breath. "I fucked up, Callie. I _am_ fucked up. A-and I've turned into this big _slut_ and you can't even stand to be in the same goddamned room as me. I think we need to talk."

"Don't say that," Callie admonished quietly. "Don't call yourself a slut."

"If the shoe fits…" Arizona responded with a self-deprecating laugh.

"I know I've said it, but I was hurt and angry and I felt I _deserved_ to call you names, but as you said, we've all said things we didn't mean."

"Didn't you mean it, though? Didn't you realize that at some point I'm not the same person you fell in love with?"

Choosing to ignore that question, Callie took a sip of her wine and pondered her next words carefully. "I thought we were happy. For me, this came out of nowhere. What's hardest for me to process is that for you, it wasn't a surprise."

"You once told me, Calliope, a long time after we began dating, that I still made your heart flutter. You told me that it was one of the things you loved most about our relationship, how we could be familiar with each other but still keep things fresh. I loved that, too."

"And?" Callie asked, her wine-stained lips parted as she waited for Arizona to get to the point.

"And then things got complicated. I left you for Africa, you got pregnant and nearly died. I fell out of the plane and nearly died. And somehow we got through all of those, but we had to push everything else aside to deal with those big things. And then I lost my leg and somewhere along the way, you became more of a doctor to me than a wife. All I wanted to do was be a wife for you, to take you to bed, to laugh with you, to make your heart flutter. But instead you were cleaning up my urine, dealing with my phantom pains, dutifully taking my anger in stride. I was your patient."

"Arizona, no, that's not – "

"It _is_ true. Don't pretend it's not," Arizona pleaded. "And you stayed, and god, I loved you for staying. But I resented you even more, because you were staying out of obligation and the hope that one day I would stop being bitter and start being your wife. So, that's what I did. I started being your wife. But I wasn't the same person I was that you fell in love with. You didn't and still don't deserve this person I've become. And Lauren? She didn't know me before; she had nothing to compare me to. Despite the missing leg, she wanted to be with me. Not because she was my wife, but because she just wanted to sleep with me."

Callie found that the last thing she wanted to do was continue to look at her broken wife as she finished her speech, but she couldn't peel her eyes away. "I had no idea you felt that way."

"I know."

"You should've told me."

"Yeah," Arizona agreed.

"And I should've listened," Callie said, realizing how much she had shoved under the rug in order to pretend things were getting better. "I didn't deserve to be cheated on," Callie added. When Arizona shook her head in agreement, she continued, "but that doesn't mean I deserve better than the person you are now."

"Where does this leave us?" Arizona asked timidly. She hated that she'd become so shy around Callie. She always used to know exactly what she wanted out of a relationship and how to get it, but now, she had no idea how to ask Callie for what she wanted.

"I honestly don't know. I think we both still need time."

"I've, um, started seeing a therapist at the hospital. He's helping."

Callie nodded. She knew exactly how proud Arizona was and how hard it was for her to admit defeat and seek help from a professional.

"That's…that's good, Arizona."

"Yeah."

"I don't know where to go from here, but how about we each make a promise? I promise not to avoid you at the hospital."

"I promise to tell you what's going on up here," Arizona said, pointing at her head. "I promise not to shut you out."

**o0o0o0o**

After paying the bill, splitting it down the middle so it couldn't possibly be a date, the two women headed towards the parking lot in the back of the restaurant.

"Well, I guess I'm headed back to the apartment. I'll send your dad over to you so you guys can talk?"

"Yeah, that sounds good, thanks."

"No problem. I'll see you around the hospital."

"See ya," Callie concluded awkwardly. She turned from Arizona, heading down the lane where she had parked earlier. Unable to shake the thoughts whirling around in her brain, Callie turned to her left to watch Arizona walk to her car.

"Hey, Arizona?" Callie called.

"Yeah?" Arizona turned to face her wife.

"The reason I've been trying so hard to avoid you is because every time you enter a room, you still make my heart flutter."


End file.
